Young Adult Almere

As mentioned in the Sunday Post I went to an event on Saturday. Young Adult Almere, also known as YAA, was hosted for the first time inside the book store De Stumpel in Almere. It was organised by two Dutch book bloggers, Lyndsey from Burn My Book and Linde from Booknuts. A lot of buzz for this event was already created by social media, especially on the facebook event page.

So on Saturday my husband and I took the train to Almere. At the station we waited for some other girls I had agreed to walk to the book store with. It was fun meeting other Dutch readers and bloggers. Unfortunately my voice wasn’t at its finest so there wasn’t a lot of talking from my side. We were some of the first to arrive just before 16.00. The walk in period was from 16.00 until 16.30. Beforehand you had to sign up and arriving at the book store we had to sign in. We got a bracelet (one from the Talon saga) to show we were already signed in.

Unforunately I forgot to take pictures during the event. I know, I know, I suck. So you’ll have to do with my words mostly.

At 16.30 the speed dating started. About 80 visitors were spread over 7 groups. There were 7 sort of stands with either an author, a publisher or a blogger. Each group got a starting stand. After 10 minutes we would switch stands so each group could visit each stand. Now I have to say I haven’t read any of the books from these mentioned authors, but I want to read some of them. And meeting an author can help the motivation to pick up their book. As much as we like to seperate the author from the book, if you like the author you’re more likely to pick up the book.

Our group, number five, started at Margaretha van Andel. She’s an author who has written some sci-fi books. Her newest book is In Transit. It’s a book that has been on my to read list. Because we weren’t asking many questions she asked us questions about our favorite books, talked about some of the young adult book she’s read and even asked our opinion about e readers. It was fun hearing her opinions on things and she put in the effort to make contact with us.

Next we went to the stand with Emmy, who is a Dutch book bloggger at Zon en Maan. We could ask her questions about blogging and even a bit about her life. Up next was a recorded video of Joelle Charbonneau, autor of the test trilogy. She talked about her latest book and her views on social media. It was interesting to hear and see how she was able to talk full a video of 7 minutes like that. I wouldn’t be able to do that.

After that we went to Mara Li, an author whose book De Stem van de Zee, I’ve been meaning to read for a while now. She told us about her book, and read a paragraph out of it. After that we could ask her some questions. Her publisher, Natasja Storm from Storm Publishers, also added to this.

Then we moved to author Jeroen van Unen. He wrote De Nachtuilen, his debut book. He told us about his book and about writing. He also asked us if we wrote and asked those questions about that. I had a hard time hearing some of his answers as a nearby group at another stand was somewhat loud. Though to be fair my cold was probably also a reason why my hearing wasn’t great. It was a shame though that I couldn’t hear it all properly.

From there we went to the energetic duo Lotte from Blossom Books and Jesse from Uniboek. They gave us an insight on what kind of work they do for the publishers. They were also great fun. Lastly we went to Buddy Tegenbosch, the author of Oog om Oog. He read the start to his book, and told us about how the pages of his book became blue. He also told us he is a pilot. That must be so hard to combine with writing. This stand also marked the end of the speed dating. As you all probably know my husband isn’t a great reader. But he came along to the event for me (and ended up being one of the few males present). However even he said he found it interesting, and different, to hear the authors talk about writing and to hear about publishing. He was also surprised to see how three of the four authors present were so young.

We could get a drink (we got 2 coupons for water and juice when we signed in) and they had some bread for us to munch on as by this time it was already 18.00. There was also the oppurtunity to buy books, and the trade books with each other. Initially I was going to trade some too. I had brought along some books that people said they were interested in on the fb page of the event. However at this point I wasn’t feeling very well. I did have a look at some of the trading, but didn’t end up seeing any books I’d like to trade for or any of the people that were interested in the books I brought. Poor Maarten, dragging those heavy books along.

At this time we could also ask the authors to sign our books. I ended up buying In Transit, and I had brought along De Stem van de Zee. I got both signed so that was pretty cool. For me it was the first time meeting authors and being at an event like this, and so it was a great experience.

Around 18.30 there was a drawing for some book prizes. Afterwards we were welcome to stay a little longer and chat or we could leave. Maarten and I decided to go as I wasn’t feeling well. We got a goodie bag as we left. As we didn’t have to pay for anything with this event that was pretty great of them.

Hopefully YAA will make a return. Thank you to Lyndsey, Linde and De Stumpel for organizing it.

Welcome to A Dance with Books

I’m Annemieke. A Dutch book blogger who blogs in English. But I’m also a wife and mom. I prefer to read fantasy (adult and young adult) books but sometimes I deviate from that genre a little. Feel free to leave me a comment or contact me through other social media accounts. I always welcome a chat.

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Since Photobucket has enabled the abbility to show photos on third parties sites in June 2017, a lot of picture are not showing. This means that a lot of posts are without photos. I do not own all of these pictures anymore. Please give me a while to be able to remove and possibly restore these photos in posts. Thank you! <3